Classical homeschooling in Southern California

Just a little time…

I like sewing. I’m not very good at it, but I enjoy it. I made a baby quilt for Little Miss when she was just an itty bitty. I tried making clothes for her, but I really didn’t enjoy using those flimsy paper patterns. I made a few things more recently for Megatron.

Little Miss got an 18″ doll for Christmas this year, like American Doll. She only had the one outfit though and doll clothes seem excessively expensive so I decided to try my hand at sewing doll clothes. I made a very ugly green dress using a free pattern I found online. Then I discovered this great tutorial for how to make a Disney princess dress! I bought the pattern on Etsy and followed the tutorial here for how to adapt it to be Sleeping Beauty. The paper is printable for the size you need on normal paper, no cheap tissue paper stuff you have to deal with! And the directions were very clear for what to do and how to do it. I think she turned out pretty cute! The princess dress made Little Miss so excited, she asked me to teach her to sew! I’m all for teaching my daughter a new skill, but she’s only three years old and I’m a beginner myself. I tried to teach her despite this with a lot of help from me. I picked a very easy project… a doll sleeping bag. I let her pick our the fabric from what I had laying around, what color thread we were going to use, and was very patient as I ‘helped’ her cut the fabric rectangles out along the line I traced for her. She was to nervous to actually use the sewing machine, while sitting on my lap, so she just watched me sew it for her. The fabrics clash with pastel pink princess crowns on the outside, tan cotton on the inside with paw prints, bones, and hearts scattered across it. But she loves it. Everything I make for her she thinks is far more beautiful then anything that can be bought and when I give her free reign to pick out exactly what she wants, it makes it so much more special.So even though I’m mediocre in my sewing skills, when she asked me to make a dress for another naked baby doll she discovered with Grandma at a garage sale, I said yes. I didn’t have a pattern for that size doll so I just made a rectangle the length I needed it for the baby and added a ribbon at the top to tie on like a halter. Little Miss couldn’t be happier, despite the fact that my adult-self only sees a unshaped sack type of dress. There’s a lesson to be learned there. It’s not perfect, or designer. It didn’t cost a lot of money. All it took was a little bit of my undivided time just for her, and her little baby doll. The love I get back is worth everything. I know the years won’t last long when an unfitted, clashing dress for a dirty baby doll won’t be worth anything. But for now, I’m embracing these sweet years and taking the time to show her how much she means to me. Just a little time… it’s all she needs.